MvB Wars: Not Seeing the View For the Trees

The MvB wars, being a collection of disconnected battles, feature good guys and bad guys on each side. The billionaires are fewer in number, but higher in visibility, so they have the upper hand in poor optics, at least. “When one has much, much is expected” seems to be the default judgement mode.

Gerald Hosier may or may not be a technical billionaire. But he certainly is one of, if not the most, highly compensated attorneys this century. Google is filled with stories of how he earned, say, $140,000,000 in one year, earned over $1,000,000,000 for an Oregon client in a patent licensure case, and gained nearly $50,000,000 in a lawsuit against Citigroup over how the bank handled his personal investments around the time of the financial crisis of 2008.

He may be playing for the home town team. According to his wikipedia entry, he was born in Aspen, his law offices are located there, along with his ~ $15,000,000 Red Mountain home. Hosier also owns a 36-acre undeveloped lot, purchased in 1998, in Sopris Mountain Ranch between Basalt and Carbondale. The development, once the site of the Strang family’s cattle ranch, is located at the base of the nearly 13,000-foot peak. It’s a pleasant place, filled with aspen groves and striking views of Mt. Sopris.

It was those views that led to a recent tussle with a part-time local millionaire, Walter Stuart, a New York City attorney.

Stuart also owns property in Sopris Mtn. Ranch, adjacent to Hosier’s. In November of 2012, a landscaper hired by Stuart (according to court filings), “illegally entered upon, and then cut down and removed at least 21 large aspen trees, all located entirely on the Hosier property … Stuart also personally entered the Hosier property to identify for Giannetti the trees that he wanted cut and removed.”

No one, not Hosier nor his neighbors in the development noticed any of this activity, so, allegedly, Stuart struck again, cutting down 18 more trees. Eventually, Hosier got word of the tree rustling, and filed suit in August of 2013. Now, aspen trees are pretty much weeds in this area, and not worth very much on the open market when cut down, maybe $70,000 for these 40. But, funny thing, with those trees gone, Stuart’s home site now had an unimpeded view of Mt. Sopris. Hosier, being the clever lawyer that he is, reckoned that view added, oh, about $1,000,000 to the value of Stuart’s property, so he added that to the suit.

In addition, he put up dozens of PVC poles, to indicate where the aspens used to grow, and, no doubt, to metaphorically poke Stuart in the eye anytime he looked at his new view.

Stuart, of course, has his own version of the story. The property line is a zig zag; it was an honest mistake. And – this pretty clearly shows who the bad guy is in this story – he noted that the trees were diseased, so he was doing Hosier a favor by cutting them down, and, furthermore, Hosier now had a nice, verdant meadow where the ratty old aspens used to be. He responded to the PVC pole placement by demanding in court they be taken down, so the meadows full beauty could be appreciated, and the judge could agree that Hosier was actually better off with the trees gone.

As of mid-November, 2014, the judge has not yet ruled in this case. But given all the lawyers involved, that’s not surprising.

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